Because they are electronically delivered, e-newsletters are cheaper to produce than printed newsletters, and they can be better targeted to the proper audience. E-newsletters are a great way to create a loyal community of customers. This sense of community is even more important when the business involves clients, who presumably hire the business to provide a service because they trust it. An e-newsletter reinforces that trust.

E-newsletters should not be foisted on people like spam. Recipients should have signed up to receive the newsletter – usually at the company's site. Also, all newsletters should feature an opt-out mechanism that allows receivers to stop receiving them if they wish.

E-newsletters must offer information that is useful and desired by the reader. A newsletter filled with press releases about the company, blatant sales pitches and other obvious marketing material will die a very quick death because that kind of content is useless to the reader. Clients want solutions to their own problems and do not care how you run your business. Newsletters that contain helpful hints, methodology for solving problems and other tips are generally more popular and will be viewed more often. Marketing messages can be alluded to but should not be dominant.

Since most web users use a preview pane when reading email, you have a space about two inches deep by seven inches wide to attract the user to your entire newsletter. Studies have shown that most email readers spend as little as three seconds perusing this preview pane, so you're going to have to snare them quickly. This means use of catchy headlines, often a small picture in the upper-right corner (where the eye goes first) and especially a solution-based attitude.